Home Office minister Dan Jarvis has suggested the anti-terror Prevent programme has been underestimating the threat posed by Islamist extremism.
Dan Jarvis told the Commons that Islamist referrals into Prevent programme increased by 17 per cent last year.
But he said this rise took place from “too low a base” Jarvis admitted – and “work is already underway to improve ideology, ideology training and build awareness of the ideologies that drive radicalisation.”
The minister added:”But we should be clear about the fact that the threat is evolving fast.”
Jarvis said:”We should never forget the horrendous death toll caused by Islamist extremism over the last 20 years, it is the foremost threat that we face, and we must and will address it head on.
“The Director General of MI5 said in October that 75% of counter terrorism work was Islamist extremism in nature, 25% extreme right wing, and 13% of those being investigated by MI5 under the age of 18.”
Dan Jarvis MP
Jarvis was outlining the findings of a Prevent learning review which looked at MP Sir David Amess’s killer Ali Harbi Ali, who it was confirmed was was exited from the counter-terrorism programme “too quickly.”
Politicians from all sides of the House used Wednesday’s statement to praise their murdered colleague.
The Conservative MP Nick Timothy also said Islamist extremism should “always” be the top priority of the Prevent programme.
He told the Commons: “The reviewer found that from the material reviewed, the assessment in terms of the perpetrator’s vulnerabilities was problematic, and this ultimately led to questionable decision making and sub-optimal handling of the case during the time he was engaged with Prevent and Channel.
“It identified that the vulnerability assessment framework was not followed with the perpetrator’s symptoms being prioritised over addressing the underlying causes of his vulnerabilities.
“The reviewer ultimately found that while Prevent policy and guidance at the time was mostly followed, the case was exited from Prevent too quickly.”
Ali, who killed Amess in 2021, was referred to the Prevent programme for two years, the security minister said.
He said: “The perpetrator had previously been referred to the Prevent programme and subsequently to the specialist Channel programme between 2014 and 2016, between five and seven years before the attack took place.”
The minister said publishing the Prevent learning review into the case, completed in February 2022, would “enable public scrutiny of Prevent”.
Jarvis said: “The perpetrator of the attack on Sir David became known to Prevent in October 2014, when he was referred by his school after teachers identified a change in his behaviour.
“The case was adopted by the Channel Multi-Agency Early Intervention Programme in November of 2014.
“An intervention provider who specialised in tackling Islamist extremism was assigned to work with him. The perpetrator was exited from Channel in April 2015 after his terrorism risk was assessed as low.
“A 12-month post-exit police review in 2016 also found no terrorism concerns. The case was closed to Prevent at that point. There were no further Prevent referrals in the five years between the case being closed and the attack.”
Mike Freer, the former justice minister and Conservative MP for Finchley and Golders Green, revealed he narrowly avoided an encounter with Ali a month before he murdered the Southend West MP Amess.
“He’d been to Finchley several times. He told [the police] that he’d come to Finchley on 21 September 2021 – I remember the date vividly – armed with the intention to harm,” Freer revealed ahead of his decision to quit politics last year.
“And purely by a stroke of luck, the night before, Boris Johnson had moved me from the whips’ office to courts and equalities. Otherwise I would have been in Finchley and probably attacked.”
